Sydney again on top as home values rise across the country

Sydney has topped the list yet again as Australia's most expensive city in which to buy a home. With a median dwelling price of $640,000 the NSW capital is streets ahead of the rest.

For most capital cities home values are rising.

Sydney's property prices have again come out on top according to an industry report that shows a 5.8 per cent jump in dwelling values for the three months to November.

The latest RP Data-Rismark Hedonic Home Value Index puts Sydney's median dwelling price at a whopping $640,000, placing the city's real estate values streets ahead of the rest of the country.

Second on the list was Melbourne, coming in nearly $90,000 cheaper with a median dwelling price of $552,500. The Victorian capital only had a modest dwelling value rise of 1.5 per cent over the quarter.

Senior research analyst at RP Data, Cameron Kusher, said Sydney and Melbourne had recorded "relatively" strong levels of annual value growth and are up 12.5 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively over the last 12 months.

However, he said, over the past couple of months, the monthly rate of growth in both cities has begun to slow.

Mr Kusher said while further growth is likely for this current cycle, we may have already seen the peak rate of value growth for both cities.

Australia's cheapest place to buy real estate is still Hobart, which suffered a 4.7 per cent slump in prices over the same three-month period.

Canberra was the only other capital city to see home values drop with a 3.5 per cent decrease over the quarter.

The report also showed that growth across the combined capital cities for November dwelling values rose by just 0.1 per cent.

Combined capital city values are 8 per cent higher over the last 12 months, and 8.3 per cent higher for 2013 so far, meaning the past year's market had the fastest rate of annual growth since October 2010.

Although home values have been trending higher across most cities, Sydney and Perth are still the only individual capital city markets in which home values are now higher than they were at their previous peak.

"The latest data from the Reserve Bank shows private sector housing credit increased by 5 per cent over the 12 months to October 2013, its highest annual rate of growth since June 2012. The data also indicates that housing credit for investment housing (6.4 per cent a year) is expanding at a much faster pace than owner occupier finance (4.3 per cent a year)," Mr Kusher said.

A typical capital city home is currently taking 41 days to sell compared to 50 days a year ago and homes are being discounted by 5.8 per cent currently compared to 6.6 per cent a year ago.